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Shams Charania on Adrian Wojnarowski Relationship: 'Do I Have to Answer That?'

The new CNBC Sports newsletter scored the first exclusive with Charania since he joined ESPN.

Kyle Koster

Shams Charania made his ESPN debut on Thursday
Shams Charania made his ESPN debut on Thursday / FanDuel TV

Alex Sherman of CNBC scored the first exclusive interview with Shams Charania as the NBA insider gets acclimated to his new role at ESPN. He shed some light on what his responsibilities will be at the network with some detail.

“It’s definitely going to be a lot of TV,” Charania said. “All the shows you think about: ‘NBA Today,’ ‘NBA Countdown,’ ‘Get Up,’ ‘Sportscenter,’ ‘The Pat McAfee Show.’ I feel like the last six years have really helped prepare me for this moment, and I’m excited to continue to use and share in this platform and the behemoth that is ESPN.”

Charania was less expansive when asked about how his relationship with former-teammate-turned-rival Adrian Wojnarowski.

“Do I have to answer that?” Charania joked in reference to the water-cooler topic, before settling on an answer.

“We worked together for two years. I’m forever honored and cherished to have been a part of that Vertical staff [at Yahoo Sports],” Charania said. “It’s a very competitive business. It’s a very, very competitive space. Over the last several years, I have just tried to just hone in on what aspects I can control on a daily basis, and that’s how I treat people and my work ethic.” 

That's about as well as the question, which is definitely fair game and something Charania has to expect will continue to be a point of public interest, can be answered. Shams was diplomatic and forward-thinking and, honestly, expressed a pretty healthy approach to the job.

He made his ESPN debut on Thursday morning, appearing on both Get Up and First Take. And perhaps we got a glimpse of how he'll go about doing television. In both instances he revealed a bit of news—maybe not groundbreaking news, but news nonetheless—to Mike Greenberg and Stephen A. Smith, who were teed up to give a reaction to it.

It's a template that's easy to replicate and there's no shortage of bombs, big or small, to drop—especially as the NBA season gets going. The straightforward format doesn't require Charania to light up the screen with magnetism but instead to introduce the top at hand with the latest, most accurate information and rely on the ESPN talents paid handsomely to have a take to give one.

A new era is here.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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